Arla Food Ingredients Develops New Clean-Label Natural Improvers

07 May 2013 --- Arla Foods Ingredients has developed a ground-breaking ‘toolbox’ of natural improvement solutions offering bakers optimised production processes, better quality end-products, reduced waste and cleaner labels – all at the same time.

The Nutrilac Natural Improvers range is an innovative portfolio of multi-functional ingredients offering targeted benefits for producers of bread, cakes, biscuits & cookies and bakery fillings. All are made from natural and functional proteins derived exclusively from milk and can be listed on-pack simply as ‘milk protein’.

The new ingredients are designed to provide industrial bakers with smoother and more efficient processes, promising easier handling of dough, batters and fillings. They also provide excellent stability, with the ability to lock in the air whipped into batters and the water kneaded into dough, resulting in optimum freshness, texture and resilience throughout a product’s shelf life.
Shelf life itself can also be extended using Nutrilac Natural Improvers, because they help a product maintain perfect sensory properties for longer, cutting down on waste and increasing profit margins. The new ingredients can also improve the nutritional profile of a baked product by reducing fat content.
All of these substantial benefits are achieved using 100% natural ingredients, helping bakers maintain cleaner labels by avoiding the many synthetic improvement agents on the market. The wide range of benefits provided by the ingredients offers manufacturers an excellent multi-functional alternative to gums, enzymes and emulsifiers, which are usually limited in their scope to a single benefit or function.

The new Nutrilac Natural Improvers are being launched now in Europe and China, with a global roll-out set for later this year.

Søren Nørgaard, senior manager at Arla Foods Ingredients, said: “We have long known that our existing protein-based egg replacement solutions provide a series of supplementary quality benefits. Our technologists have now taken those benefits and evolved them into a targeted toolbox which makes it easier for bakers to achieve great results every time, whatever their goal and whatever the product.” He continued: “Our new Nutrilac Natural Improvers offer bakers a huge variety of benefits that meet a comprehensive range of production needs, including optimised processes, better product quality and reduced wastage. They will appeal to consumers, too, because they will result in a healthier product with a cleaner label, free of the e-numbers and chemical names used for other improvement additives.”

There are four launch products in Arla Foods Ingredients’ new Nutrilac Natural Improvers toolbox, each offering specific benefits designed to meet the majority of bakers’ needs:

- Nutrilac CH-4650 – ensures a much more stable batter with better mixing tolerance, enhances cake surfaces by reducing stickiness, improves colour and appearance in cakes, and optimises creaminess by imitating fat in custard cream and other types of filling.
- Nutrilac IM-8027 – a high-gelling protein designed to create excellent structure and strength in baked goods, providing optimum viscosity in most batter systems, greater water retention and excellent emulsification.
- Nutrilac IM-5566 – provides softness in bread without reducing crumb resilience or elasticity, offers increased strength in cakes for better slicing quality, and stabilises aerated batter systems for higher volume and stability.
- Nutrilac IM-7042 – offers improved mixing tolerance, produces a more stable batter and provides superb emulsification properties in a whole range of wheat-based baked goods, including bread.

Søren Nørgaard added: ”Our Nutrilac Natural Improvers are truly innovative and the first ingredients of their kind. As such, they offer bakers the opportunity to produce perfect products every time and gain a genuine edge over the competition.”